[Scan-DC] Can you believe this?

Fri Sep 11 14:38:07 EDT 2009

CNN Takes Heat For Coast Guard Report; Gets Slammed By White House

CNN had some explaining to do on the air Friday morning, following its earlier report that the Coast Guard "tried to prevent a boat from entering a security zone on the Potomac River," and that shots were fired not far from where President Obama commemorated the attacks on Sept. 11.

The network caused a stir on Twitter with the following: "BREAKING NEWS: Suspicious boat in river near Obama in DC. Police scanner reports of shots fired. Circumstances unclear."

It turns out the Coast Guard was involved in a training exercise.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN's homeland security correspondent, went on the air after to explain why the network reported on shots being fired.

"We saw things happening on the water," she said. "We could see boats racing around. And we were listening to Coast Guard radio traffic."

Meserve said she heard on the Coast Guard radio that 10 rounds had been fired.

CNN had based its initial story on reports from police scanners that shots had been fired, but had no independent confirmation.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told POLITICO that CNN should attend the Coast Guard's noon press conference where they'll explain the exercise on the Potomac.

"My only caution would be that before we report things like this, checking would be good," Gibbs said.

Later, Gibbs and CNN's Elaine Quijano had a heated exchanged during a gaggle with reporters, where the press secretary said it was "a little hard to divorce the media coverage" from her questions. Gibbs said his criticism wasn't of her, "just write large at CNN."

"Look, if anybody was unnecessarily alarmed based on erroneous reporting that denoted that shots had been fired, I think everybody is apologetic of that," Gibbs said.

CBS News Radio White House correspondent Mark Knoller, on Twitter, said that "some networks have a lot of explaining to do--misinterpreting police scanner messages as shots firect [sp?] by the coast guard. He added: "As Walter Cronkite used to say, get it first, but first, get it right."

Matt Drudge singled out the network, with a blaring headline: "CNN PANIC IN DC ON 911 ANNI."

A CNN spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Following the incident, ABC News' Lisa Stark reported: The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to ABC News that flights departing from the Washington D.C. Ronald Reagan National Airport were stopped for 20 minutes as a precautionary measure after media reports of shots fired by the Coast Guard on the Potomac River.

FAA officials say 17 outbound flights were affected but arrivals were not impacted. Departures stopped at around 10:08 a.m. and resumed at 10:29 a.m.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: "Dan Patrick" <newsmandan at yahoo.com>

Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:36:56 
To: <scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net>; <Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] Can you believe this?

Another correction on my posting, CNN is located at 820 First Street NE.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

-----Original Message-----
From: dan P <newsmandan at yahoo.com>

Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:17:04 
To: <Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] Can you believe this?

I stand corrected about the intercept, CNN DID pick up the marine channel 81 over at 400 North Capitol and not off a DCFD radio.  They say they never heard anything in the transmissions about it being an excercise. Sorry for the confusion.  

________________________________
From: JOHN ANTONELLI <johnantonelli at verizon.net>
To: scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net; James Richardson <jimmnn at comcast.net>; cohenner at gmail.com
Cc: scandc <Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 11:30:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] Can you believe this?

Well they did have video of something going on and could the shots have been blanks?

Actually when stuff happens, you don't have time to wait for confirmation you go forward and you get confirtmation as you can.  

Still wrong place for a training exercise.  

--- On Fri, 9/11/09, cohenner at gmail.com <cohenner at gmail.com> wrote:

From: cohenner at gmail.com <cohenner at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] Can you believe this?
To: "JOHN ANTONELLI" <johnantonelli at verizon.net>, scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net, "James Richardson" <jimmnn at comcast.net>
Cc: "scandc" <Scan-DC at mailman.qth.net>
Date: Friday, September 11, 2009, 11:26 AM

To the credit of the Coast Guard, this really needs to be dumped on CNN. They ran with unconfirmed information - and apparently, no shots were fired at all. CNN should never have run this, and needs to be called on the carpet for doing so. 
------Original Message------
From: JOHN ANTONELLI
Sender: scan-dc-bounces at mailman.qth.net
To: James Richardson
Cc: scandc
Subject: Re: [Scan-DC] Can you believe this?
Sent: Sep 11, 2009 11:23

Ddi they not learn from the picture taking in NYC.  What morons!
--- On Fri, 9/11/09, James Richardson <jimmnn at comcast.net> wrote:

From: James Richardson <jimmnn at comcast.net>
Subject: [Scan-DC] Can you believe this?
To: mnn at egroups.com, LiveScannerAudio at yahoogroups.com, ScannerbuffsofAmerica at yahoogroups.com, scan-dc at mailman.qth.net
Cc: breakingtvnews at yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, September 11, 2009, 11:09 AM

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A security incident Friday on the Potomac River was
prompted by a training exercise, two sources in the Washington police
department said the Coast Guard told them.

A source in the FBI also told CNN it was a training exercise. The Coast
Guard told CNN it was looking into the matter.

The U.S. Coast Guard appeared to be trying to prevent a boat from entering a
security zone on the Potomac River not far from the Pentagon, where
President Obama had been at an event commemorating the September 11 attacks.

Police scanner traffic said the Coast Guard vessel had fired shots.

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